General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.04 EPS

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.04, Zacks reports. General Mills had a net margin of 13.08% and a return on equity of 27.55%. The firm had revenue of $4.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.99 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.17 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year.

General Mills Stock Performance

Shares of General Mills stock opened at $58.31 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. General Mills has a 52 week low of $55.15 and a 52 week high of $75.90. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $59.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $65.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.12%. General Mills’s payout ratio is currently 52.17%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GIS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays cut their price objective on General Mills from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of General Mills in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, General Mills currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $66.76.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

In other General Mills news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $739,635.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,967,490. The trade was a 3.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

General Mills Company Profile

General Mills, Inc manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company operates through four segments: North America Retail; International; Pet; and North America Foodservice. It offers grain, ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, soup, meal kits, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, bakery flour, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, snack bars, fruit and savory snacks, ice cream and frozen desserts, unbaked and fully baked frozen dough products, frozen hot snacks, ethnic meals, side dish mixes, frozen breakfast and entrees, nutrition bars, and frozen and shelf-stable vegetables.